Original Interview can be found : here
Explain how your vacuum bagging technique is different from the way a board is traditionally made and glassed.
A.J. Finan: We shape it just like a normal board—we’ve got myself, Rich Price, Jeff Haney, and a few other guys doing the shaping. So we get a standard board shaped or off the machine, and we take that and do nothing else to it except for bagging it.
The bagging technique is really what took me three years to refine. And that’s where I guess the gist of it is. They’re made from a conglomeration of synthetic materials, a much higher strength of aerospace fiberglass, synthetics that comprise durability as well as abrasive resistance. We use a lot of cross-weaves, which are bi-directional glasses. Straight up and down weave is just incredibly weak. We’re all about what vectors are covered, what directions of possible breaking points are covered. And when we bag a board we flatten the fibers, which makes them straighter and incredibly stronger than they’re even rated at.
What about resin?
On a regular board it’s all based on 50 percent resin, 50 percent fiber. We’re based on about 75 percent fiber and 25 percent resin. You get a better board when there’s less resin because the resin is the weakest link. Plus, we’re getting three boards per gallon of resin. It usually takes about ¾ of a gallon per board and we’re getting three boards out of one gallon.
What makes resin the weakest link in the shaping process?
If the temperature changes in your factory by one degree the resin will shrink differently, so you get a different shape every time. Our boards get bagged down in position, it can’t move. A typical poly you can’t get the same board twice. Not because the guy didn’t shape the same board twice, but because resin shrinks every day. We can get the same board and the same quality, or we can adjust. So if you want more rocker in the tail we jump the position of it or switch trays on your board.
How does all that translate out in the water?
Basically it just takes less energy to create more speed—you don’t have to pump as hard. And if it takes less energy you can focus more on the controls, technique, all extra things besides generating speed. If you wanna be there, you’re there. They’re that fast, that much quicker, and they’re that easy. It’s basically a shell construction. So when you’re loading up the front foot, since its all shell, you’re dispersing that energy throughout the whole deck of the board, to the bottom, through the rails, and it just spreads the energy.
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